What do humans need to survive? We need food, water, and warm shelter. We all need a warm place to live, particularly when it's chilly outside. How do many of us warm our houses or apartments? We depend on fossil fuels to supply gas and electricity to our heaters. But burning fossil fuels to create energy is harmful to the environment. What if there was a way to warm our homes without burning fossil fuels and it was free? In this science fair project, you will build a solar air heater and see…
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EnvEng_p028

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Time Required

Average (6-10 days)

Prerequisites

None

Material Availability

Readily available

Cost

Average ($50 - $100)

Safety

You need to cut cardboard for this project and use paint. Always exercise caution when using a sharp knife and scissors. Paint in an area with good ventilation.

Here is a project that uses direct solar power, gathering the sun's rays for heating/sterilizing water or cooking. It is a low-cost technology that seems to have everything going for it. Does it work? Can you find ways to improve it? Find out with this project.
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Energy_p018

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Time Required

Average (6-10 days)

Prerequisites

Sunlight, and fairly warm outside temperatures (>10°C, or 50°F).

Material Availability

Readily Available

Cost

Low ($20 - $50)

Safety

Adult supervision recommended. The oven is designed to cook food or boil water, so use proper caution to avoid burning yourself. Also be careful with the utility knife when cutting cardboard.

Have you considered where the gasoline that your parents put in your car comes from and how long that source will last? The fuel that most vehicles use, gasoline, is a petroleum product. Petroleum is a fossil fuel and is a nonrenewable form of energy, meaning we use it faster than it is able to be reproduced. Burning fossil fuels also produces pollutants that might hurt our environment. Using a kind of fuel from a renewable source would help save Earth's natural resources and cut down on…
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Energy_p030

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- Less Details

Time Required

Average (6-10 days)

Prerequisites

None

Material Availability

Readily available

Cost

Average ($50 - $100)

Safety

You will be working with flammable materials. Wear safety goggles and other safety gear to prevent injury. Adult supervision is required. Perform this science fair project in a well-ventilated area, away from combustible and flammable objects.

Do you like getting something for nothing? Everybody likes getting things for free. How about getting energy and power for free? The Sun sends us free energy every second and all we have to do is collect it. Taking advantage of free energy can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, which are harmful to our environment. In this science fair project, you will work with a solar panel, which is a collector of free energy, and investigate how varying the angle of the solar panel, and thus the amount…
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Can you imagine designing and building a space telescope the size of a tennis court? Believe it or not, that is someone's job! Engineers are hard at work on the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST. This telescope has the potential to enable astronomers to see light from when the Universe was first formed. No one knows what amazing discoveries this might lead to. However, to make the telescope work properly, engineers have to overcome a lot of challenges. In this science project, you can…
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Phys_p082

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Time Required

Long (2-4 weeks)

Prerequisites

None

Material Availability

Most of the materials are available in hardware or craft stores.

Cost

Average ($50 - $100)

Safety

Adult supervision is required. Use caution when using the box cutter, heat lamp, and laser pointer.

Solar cells provide a clean way of making electricity directly from sunlight. In this project you will build a simple circuit and experimental setup to investigate whether the power output of a solar cell changes with ambient temperature.
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Would you like some sky vegetables for dinner? How about some fresh-cut roof flowers to put in vases in your house? Around the world, rooftops are being transformed into living green expanses. Besides beauty, rooftop gardens have a number of advantages, including growing food and taking carbon dioxide out of the air while releasing breathable oxygen. But can rooftop gardens also keep your house cooler and lower your energy bill? Try this science fair project to find out.
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"How do you frighten a grasshopper? And what does that have to do with light?" These are a couple of questions you're probably asking yourself after reading the title. Well, The Frightened Grasshopper Solar-Powered Bug is actually a toy grasshopper that vibrates when it is placed in sunlight or near a lightbulb. It stores up the energy from light, and converts it into motion. You will use this fun toy to explore how the brightness of the light affects the motion of the solar-powered insect.
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Elec_p061

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Time Required

Very Short (≤ 1 day)

Prerequisites

None

Material Availability

The Frightened Grasshopper toy needs to be ordered from online. See the Materials and Equipment list for details.

Cost

Low ($20 - $50)

Safety

Adult supervision is required. The lightbulbs will be hot, so use caution to avoid getting burned by the bulbs. The Frightened Grasshopper toy should be assembled with the help of an adult since it is fragile and has some small parts.

How can seawater from the oceans be turned into fresh water that is suitable for people to drink? Through a process called solar desalination! In this science project, you will make a solar desalination apparatus using readily available materials, and a power source that is free. How much water can the device produce, and is it still salty at all? What factors affect how effectively saltwater is turned into fresh water?
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EnvEng_p022

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- Less Details

Time Required

Average (6-10 days)

Prerequisites

None

Material Availability

Some specialty items needed, see Materials list for details.
For your convenience a
Science Buddies Kit is available for purchase.

Cost

Average ($50 - $100)

Safety

A hand drill is needed for some steps. Adult assistance is needed for the steps involving a hand drill.
All items in the Science Buddies Kit come pre-drilled, eliminating this safety issue.

A nice hot cup of tea sure can wake and warm you up in the morning. In this science fair project, you will investigate the chemistry of tea. The longer you steep a tea bag in hot water, the stronger the tea will be. But how does the strength of the tea change with longer brewing time? In this food science project, you will make a very simple electronic device to measure the strength of tea. The device will determine how strong the tea is by measuring the amount of light the tea absorbs.
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You can find this page online at: http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/search.shtml?v=solt&pi=Energy_p033.shtml

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